Central Coast investment advisor seeks to change guilty plea

March 3, 2025

By KAREN VELIE

A Central Coast financial advisor with offices in Arroyo Grande, Orcutt and Lompoc admitted to defrauding her clients and an out-of-state business out of more than $7.7 million in a plea agreement with Justice Department officials late last year. On Tuesday, Julie Darrah plans to ask the court to allow her to change her plea.

Darrah, 52, pleaded guilty to one criminal count: wire fraud.

As a licensed financial advisor, Darrah defrauded her elderly and disabled clients out of $2.25 million. In 2022, Darrah sold her company Vivid Financial Management to the Wealth Enhancement Group, though she continued to represent her clients as an employee of the buyer.

While selling the business, Darrah made “false and misleading statements and concealed facts regarding her theft of client funds, which resulted in approximately $5.4 million in losses” to Wealth Enhancement Group. The buyer partially paid for Darrah’s firm through an out-of-state wire transfer to an account she held in San Luis Obispo County.

While the statutory maximum sentence for wire fraud is 20 years in prison, Darrah is slated to be sentenced to no more than 12 years and seven months, according to the plea agreement. In addition, the plea agreement requires Darrah to pay restitution of approximately $7.7 million.

Darrah was arrested on the wire fraud charge on Jan. 30. and then released on $50,000 bail. Darrah, a Santa Maria resident, was also ordered to report any change of address.

In her plea agreement, Darrah admitted she devised a scheme to defraud her clients through “false or fraudulent pretenses, representations, or promises.”

While a sentencing hearing has not yet been set, Darrah requested a change of plea hearing which will be heard on March 4 at the U.S. Courthouse in Los Angeles.

Darrah’s fraud scheme against her elderly and disabled clients

From Nov. 2016 through July 2023, Darrah stole approximately $2.25 million from nine of her clients, nearly all of whom were elderly and at least some of whom were receiving end-of-life care, according to the plea agreement.

She gained control of her victims’ assets by becoming their trustee, the signatory on their bank accounts, and by obtaining power of attorney over their accounts – an uncommon practice for financial advisors that enabled the fraud. She concealed her scheme by, among other things, changing client account mailing addresses to her own address.

For example, in April 2017, Darrah convinced a 77-year-old woman to appoint her as trustee of the woman’s trust, according to the plea agreement. Darrah then sold most of the woman’s securities, with the proceeds deposited into the victim’s bank account.

Utilizing her power of attorney over the woman’s accounts, Darrah transferred more than $1 million into her own account.

After absconding with her clients’ funds, Darrah allegedly used the ill-gotten gains to buy multiple real estate properties, pay personal expenses, buy luxury vehicles, and buy and operate restaurant businesses at a loss.

In Oct. 2023, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Darrah with multiple violations of the Securities Act, in a civil action. Then, in 2023, Wealth Enhancement Group filed a lawsuit against Darrah seeking $7 million in damages, which she agreed to pay.

For more than a year, Darrah has sold off her real estate holdings in an alleged attempt to repay her victims.

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